2025-07-16 Stained the decking
I built some decking last year - I have an internal project page which documented it all which I still need to share.
One decision was to use decking boards which were already treated and good for 15 years. This seems to be pretty standard for decking, so once I'd build it all, I just used a bit of end grain protector on the ends where the treated stuff had been cut.
However, without treating it, it's picked up a lot of moss and dirt and debris from the large listed tree above it, so Meesh asked for it to be stained/treated, preferably with a warmer colour. In theory this is largely for aesthetics.
Do it properly, or do it?
This is the sort of thing that I could spend ages doing: I could research all the stain and paints. I could buy a bunch of decking prep kit, sanding equipment, scrapers etc. I could buy a decking spray gun. I could spend weeks on this! But this decking was a first prototype: the 5 year decking. This doesn't need to be perfect, it's far better if it just gets done quickly: it's moving some stain from a tub to some wood.
I've moved stain from tubs to wood before, and it wasn't too hard, I don't need to overthink this, I can reuse most of my existing things and thoughts.
1 coat, 1.5 litre of Sadolin all purpose exterior stain - antique pine
Dad had some clear stain he'd got for his decking. I did some tests on a spare piece of decking board, and this clear coat was literally that, a very clear coat that just bought the grain out a tiny bit, but didn't change the colour.
Fortunately, we still had half a 2.5l tub of Antique Pine exterior stain: Me and Meesh bought a tub of this when doing the interiors as a cheaper, more available alternative to the Ronseal Pine colour to do lighter wood features around the house. It's a tiny bit darker in colour than I'd prefer, but it's generally fine. It dries quickly, although it's a little tacky for a day or 2 after.
I did a test of up to 3 coats on a decking board. 3 coats was too dark, albeit quite a nice shiny finish. 1 coat looked a lot lighter and preserved the wood texture more, which I like. I've had this experience before with this stain: indoor at least, it looked better with 1 coat in places. If it's outside, and the stain is needed for protection too, then whilst 1 coat might look good, extra coats would probably increase protection.
Either way, it was pretty much exactly half a tub, and the instructions say 1l should do 15m^2. Half a tub did the decking almost exactly, so I only had enough for 1 coat anyway!
power wash, 15 mins prep,
It was warm weather but with unpredictable drizzle over the week. I spent 15 mins clearing the decking and brushing it thoroughly. I could have got a sander out, and tightened some screws and such, but most things looked fine as it was only built 12 months ago. It's worth noting I did also power wash it a few weeks ago to get most of the moss and dirt off.
When powerwashing, I started with the wider spray approach, hoping it would be about a board wide. Half way through, I tried switching to the thinner, spinny, higher pressure end, and that had a far better result, so I had to go back over the bits I'd done. Do need to be careful with this nozzle though, as around notches and cracks, it was too strong and caused some splintering.
1 hour per coat with a 3" brush
I timed how long it would take me to do the longest decking board with imaginary paint, it was about 1.5 minutes, and there were about 30 boards, so I estimated about 1 hour once real paint is factored in. After clearing the decking in the morning, it was still a tiny bit damp, so I left with the idea that if it didn't rain or drizzle, I'd do it in the afternoon. It didn't rain, so I did it in the afternoon. It took about 1 - 1.5 hours.
I could have bought a foam roller or foam pad or something for applying to decking. I used a relatively old but this 3" wide brush. This did work reasonably well, although it was predictably tiring on the hands and legs, but the width and nature of the brush, board and stain made it quite easy to crouch and use large strokes/waves of the arm whilst walking, rather then spending lots of time on hands and knees.
When doing this next time though, I can do it with a brush, it's fine, it didn't take too long, and it seems to have turned out looking quite nice. The bigger the brush, the better. I think a pad or a roller would have had some issues with roughness of the decking in places, and the brush made it a lot easier to get in and around notches or similar.
I did also bring a smaller brush with me to try get in between the boards, but that was pretty fruitless. The big brush also didn't do a great job of getting between the boards either.
Conclusion/Retro
Treating the decking was a surprisingly easy and quick task. I could have spent a lot more time/effort/money/thought, but I was able to reuse most of my existing stuff.
All in all, it took about 2 week from deciding it needed to be done, to it being done. The first week and half of that was normally just 5 or 10 mins a day testing 2 different stains and waiting for coats to dry.
In terms of actual work: research, prep, doing it etc. it was probably about 3 - 5 hours.
Next time:
- I'll need a new tub of Antique Pine, as I finished the current tub
- doing decking with a thick brush was good: getting a roller or pad might be a bit easier, but probably not faster as I'd still need to get into gaps etc.
- power wash with the thinner nozzle from the start
- consider something to try get in between the boards?
- Assuming stain, a brush, and a dry afternoon are available, there should be no need for this to run for more than an afternoon in future, unless unforeseen repears/preps.